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Stockwell

Frictionless retail powered by AI

Company
Stockwell
Dates
5/1/2018 - 6/1/2020
Keywords
Head of Design
Brand development
Team building
Frictionless retail powered by AI

Overview

Stockwell was an AI-powered vending machine that provided a frictionless retail experience: you opened the store with an app, took what you wanted, and received a receipt shortly after closing the door. Stockwells were placed in apartment and condo buildings, college campuses, gyms, and offices. We operated four warehouses and could tailor the store inventory to the location and shoppers’ requests.

Involvement

I was initially an advisor and joined as the head of design a year after founding.

  • Built the first four Stockwells prototypes in my carport.
  • Rebranded the company from Bodega to Stockwell, managed several studies to streamline the sales process, and improved onboarding and the time to first and repeat sales.
  • Grew the UX team to 8 across product, brand, and industrial design and user research.
  • I helped scale the company to operate in four metro areas with over 1200 stores in use. I also applied design and research methods to improve operational efficiency.

Examples

Stockwell Store Design

Stockwell Store Design

A Stockwell is a smart vending machine. It uses digital cameras and machine learning to determine what is bought. Using an app, customers open the store and then are free to pick up items and examine ingredients. People are only charged for things they keep.

  • Specified color, wood and metal finishes, glass tint, and the handle and base designs.
  • Worked with hardware engineering on the product tray designs. These hold smaller items such as chips, candy, and protein bars.
  • Designed price labels and the operational process to produce them. Sourced a machine to cut the price labels efficiently.
  • Produced or art-directed store signage. Designed and prototyped digital signage.
  • Worked with retail on experiments with CPG brands. Fabricated store fixtures, trays, and signage.
  • Directed design for credit card reader hardware and software UX.

Stockwell Consumer App

Stockwell Consumer App

The Stockwell app enables customers to open a Stockwell store and pay for purchases using a stored credit card or a native payment instrument such as Apple Pay or Google Pay. In addition to the consumer app, I also led the design of several internal and partner-facing applications.

  • Ran weekly consumer product meetings for the first 18 months.
  • Wrote React Native code to help us hit our Consumer App’s first release date.
  • Designed app experience. Improved first transaction conversions by 27%.
  • Sponsored several UX research studies with actionable insights.
  • Championed accessibility features. Worked with community and vendors to improve our app and store A11Y features. Several blind users took to Twitter to express joy in using a vending machine for the first time or not having to leave their building at night to shop for essentials.
  • Designed sales tools and created an ARKit (augmented reality/VR) model of a Stockwell store used by sales and delivery teams to show placement to potential clients.
  • Wrote board letter updates on UX and product initiatives. Presented to board or company all-hands on UX research findings and product roadmaps.
  • Designed retail planning tools for ordering, inventory development, management, and planogram/merchandising.
  • Re-wrote front end for internal transaction review and AI model training tools.

Stockwell Branding

Stockwell Branding

When I joined Stockwell, the company was still named Bodega. Here’s what I did to help with this transition.

  • Worked with the CEO and branding firm on the naming exercise.
  • Art-directed new identity system.
  • Selected agency to work on brand platform and marketing site. I hired a freelance web developer to build the site and worked alongside him to do the development and production work.
  • Partnered with heads of retail, sales, and operations on store experiments to drive engagement and sales.
  • On-boarded new head of marketing and helped with hiring his team of content strategy and field marketing team members.
  • Art-directed product photography and campaign shoots.
  • Art-directed brand and how it works videos: Anthem Video, How it works video.

Stockwell Delivery App

Stockwell Delivery App

Led an effort to redesign the application delivery drivers would use on their daily routes to replenish Stockwell stores.

  • I spent two days observing warehouse leads and drivers to understand their workflow and needs with the existing solution, a web form they accessed from an iPad. They would use their phones for directions.
  • Led a design sprint to review drivers and company needs.
  • Created a prototype to test with drivers and warehouse leads.
  • Worked with engineering to build a React Native iPad app.
  • Results: New app increased operational efficiency. New drivers were onboarded faster. Time to replenish was cut almost in half, audit accuracy increased by 34%, and driver happiness increased as they could complete their routes in less time.